hi! how is it going? you said that your gsect epiphany was connected with my sister lover which is of course super cool and valid
but I think it is lock all the doors that spilled all the tea. like I even tried to interpret it in another way, like it is about some girl or whatever
it doesn't fit at all. ok, maybe some girl noel used to love might have had a star shaped tambo, but what all this "forbidden feeling vibe" for? like chill man no one is going to condemn or kill you if they found out that you are having sex with your gf lmao
long story short I really want you to elaborate on this issue. thanks xx
bestieee ive been saving this one for whenever i had the time and now im stuck in the house cuz miss rona finally got me soo š
lock all the doors is super interesting! its a song that's been with him for a very long time and one that, at least in its most recent iteration, he likes enough to at least put it on his best of comp.
i think where u gotta start with this āš¤Ø is to look at the original demo from 1992 (or 93? ive seen people say both. either way very very early oasis.) that originally sat unused until 96 or 97 when noel took p much everything but the chorus, wrote the monstrosity that is my sister lover around it, and set that loose into the world. lock all the doors was the same situation but opposite parts and 20 years later. BUT if you ignore my sister lover existing for a second. ik it's hard but hear me out. i think the original lock all the doors was incredibly revealing just as it was. before he wrote the absolutely ham handed chorus that is "you're my lover, i'm your brother", the 2 parts meshed together really well in that original demo i think. they have a very similar vibe abt like. something secret! about not wanting to be discovered. "you never notice you are blind/the dream i have can never be" v similar vibe of not wanting to be seen/noticed, or having something that must be kept secret, and knowing it will only ever be this way, you can't ever have more. and then the lock all the doors chorus brings that theme of like. escapism and running from everyone's view to be alone together in hiding. i think they fit super well together.
but anyways this aint about the demo or my sister lover and i kno ppl have discussed those to death there's really nothing else to be said about my sister lover besides. god what an incredibly bizarre song. i want to force him to acknowledge it at least once and explain. it's like a personal fantasy. anyways
lock all the doors (2015 āļøš) is very inchersting cuz why would he be taking lyrics about that feeling of being with someone and having to hide it away or keep it secret and reworking them to release so many years after that time had passed? i know he'll still release a song if it's good even if it's about something that isnt really relevant anymore but this one is weird because he clearly wrote new and Liam Centric lyrics just for it, that many years afterward,
like OBVIOUSLY we all kno "she wore a star shaped tambourine/prettiest girl i'd ever seen", it haunts me every waking moment, rent free etc etc. noel taking a song he wrote the chorus for when liam actually had that tambourine, and then writing that version of liam into the song like 22 years later im SICK. i do not need to mention just how many times noel made jokes about liam being a girl, wishing liam was a girl, wishing he had a sister instead. not even gonna get into that cuz that is its entire own insanity deep dive. but š¤ makes u think !
"i tried to catch her every night/dancing on the road in her candlelight/but i can't seem to reach her anymore" babeee ur longing and loneliness is showing! this paired with the opening line of the song, and ALSO knowing just how old this song is, really makes me feel like he's longing for a past version of liam or even how they used to be together. it's just filled with nostalgia to me. he's trying, or did try, to reach that past version of liam and how they used to be but it just wasn't the same and they couldn't connect the same way anymore and he's still longing for it.
thinking about noel writing this chorus when he did in the early 90's is so š„ŗ. it's such a desperate wish for something that you couldn't ever hope to have in any real sense. you just aren't allowed. but sometimes love doesn't work that way and it's so incredibly sad for that reason lol. every time he writes about that wish to escape the world's view with someone and just be with them, alone together, it kills me. it's so sad :(
i think either this chorus was simply just good enough for him to reuse all those years later or, i would imagine to some degree even after all that time you would still wish for a perfect world where you could escape and hide away together and never be found. since that's essentially what caused 80% of the problems in the first place. again i think it's brought back up by nostalgia and a wish for things to be how they used to be. even if they were hiding and only together in secret behind locked doors with the lights off, at least they were together.
also i think the side by side of growing up sharing a bedroom with your brother, falling in love with him probably in said bedroom, and then writing a song about locking doors and getting down on the floor is very inchersting. makes me wonder if their door had a lock š¤
this is where it gets juicy! and yes i had to edit this bc genius had the wrong lyrics! or at least i think so bc i dont own the album and am pure pissed abt that because i was halfway out of bed to get it and look when i realized i dont even fucking own it! anyways!
this part is super wack to me bc instead of speaking About this person like he has been, he starts speaking directly To them. the "She" he mentions then becomes someone else entirely, i rlly dont wanna go there but you can make your own conclusions. no matter how toxic and terrible it is between them, i don't think anyone will ever understand either of them the way they understand eachother so i get why he wrote a line like that, "she never hears me when i speak/i gotta find out where that magic sleeps" it doesn't mean he's like pining for liam over his wife or something, i think he's just nostalgic for that level of understanding and being known that he really can't get anywhere else.
"and i can feel you underneath my skin" YESS you are entwined forever neither of you will ever escape the other ur constantly followed by the thought or memory of him and vice versa. pining and longing for somebody to the point where they live so rent free in your head that you can feel them under your skin.
"and if we take our love inside" back to being hidden inside/behind closed doors with someone, because at least you have them at all! i think it's inchersting how noel's common view of his solo career being his ultimate freedom and happiness is contrasted here by a line like "cause i don't wanna sail on the ocean wide/cause we might never live to meet again" which sounds more like loneliness and the fear of him never getting this thing back that he's clearly missing. he obviously knows that they don't have forever if he does plan on fixing that at all. maybe being trapped inside, behind locked doors is better than being all by yourself and alone because at least you're locked in there with the person you love.
i don't think this song, or him bringing it back and releasing it this way, is a real true wish for that at all. more like a fantasy. when you're in a relationship like that for so long i can imagine it becomes a comfort and anything else might seem lonely/overwhelming or make you long for it, even if in hindsight it was much worse. it's just kind of all you know.
anyways yea in conclusion lock all the doors and thinking abt why it was originally written makes me very very sad let there be love etc etc
āAnd perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. [...] When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.āĀ š©ø
āIn the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.āĀ š»
Two souls, reunited.
(quotes from Madelline Miller's The Song Of Achilles)
Beatles in Paris. 1964.
JOHN PULLED THE āno actually weāre just good friendsā ššššš madness.
Brian Ray on threads
Paul McCartney and George Martin in Get Back, January 1969 Paul McCartney and George Martin recording Tug Of War, March 1982
The dream is over. What can I say? The dream is over. Yesterday
God (1970)
The only thing you done was yesterday And since you've gone you're just another day
How Do You Sleep? (1971)
Today, I love you more than yesterday Right now, I love you more right now
I Know (I Know) (1973)
Candid photographs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney during a press conference in New York City to promote The Beatlesā newly formed Apple Records on May 14th, 1968.
Now and Then: I know it's true / It's all because of you
And if I make it through / It's all because of you / And now and then / If we must start again / Well, we will know for sure / That I love you
I don't wanna lose you, oh no / Abuse you or confuse you / Oh no, no, sweet darlin' / But if you have to go away / If you have to go, well you the reason [?]
Now and then / I miss you / Oh, now and then / I want you to return to me / 'Til you return to me / I know it's true / It's all because of you / And if you go away / I know you could never stay
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Love Awake: Love awake to the day / When we can make our love awake / Lord knows we need it any time we can get it / But we forget it every now and then / But if you don't feel it, later on, you'll regret it / And if we let it we could set it free, you and me
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My Old Friend: If I told you how I feel / Oh, it wouldnāt sound so real / āCause emotions, they are just now settinā in / But it sure is great to know / That wherever we may go / We can always be the best of friends
My old friend, / Thanks for inviting me in / My old friend, / May this goodbye never mean the end / If we never meet again this side of life / In a little while, over yonder, / Where itās peace and quiet / My old friend, / Wonāt you think about me every now and then
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Well, it was something that Iāll never live long enough to forget. It happened in February of 1981 and as the world all knows, and never will forget, in December of 1980 when John Lennon was taken away from us, and so this was the following year, in February. I wrote the song about and for Paul McCartney. I did it because he was so kind to invite me down to this beautiful island of Montserrat with Stevie Wonder. Ringo was there, just had a wonderful time. I flew down by myself. Paul and Linda met me with a jeep on the (center) airfield with a little single engine plane and took me across the mountains we were like kids again, and it was a wonderful time, and I wanted to do⦠I didnāt want to cry when I left after staying down there, and Iām a big crybaby! If something moves me, Iāll just choke up⦠I talk about it. I thought that would happen, so the night before, I just wrote how I felt on the isle of Montserrat on every shell, forget a country boy with a guitar and a song you invited me, and you treated me like kin, and youāve given me a reason to go on. So my old friend, think about me every now and then. I sang it for Paul, at about 10:00 the next morning. I was scheduled to leave flying again in the little single engine aircraft to the island of Antigua where I was flying commercial back to Atlanta and on to Nashville and back to Jackson, where I live here. I sang it, he said āCarl, itās beautiful⦠would you sing it again?ā and I said. āSure, man.ā He said āwait just a minute,ā and he got Linda in there, and they sat on the floor, I sat on his old Fender twin reverb amplifier, with a guitar, I did however notice a microphone over there. I didnāt pay that much attention to it, but George Martin recorded it and after I finished singing the song to Paul, he was crying, tears were rolling down his pretty cheeks, and theyāre pretty to me just like they are to the rest of the world. I think heās a very handsome boy and always did. Heās even handsomer when heās crying. And Linda said, āCarl, thank you so much.ā I said, āLinda, Iām sorry⦠I didnāt mean to make you cry.ā She said, āBut heās crying and he needed to. He hasnāt been able to really break down since that happened to John.ā I mean he stepped outside of the room, out by the pool, and he just had his handkerchief out, and he was going at it. And she put her arm around me and said, āBut how did you know?ā I said, āKnow what, Linda? I donāt know what youāre talking about?ā She said āThereās two people in the world that know what John Lennon said to Paul, the last thing he said to him. Me and Paul are the only two that know that, but now thereās three and one of you⦠you know it. I said, āGirl, youāre freaking me out! I donāt know what youāre talking about!ā She said the last words that John Lennon said to Paul in the hallway of the Dakota building were⦠he patted him on the shoulder, and said, āThink about me every now and then, old friend.ā Q: Thatās just amazing⦠And she said, here you are, thatās what you just sang, and how did you know? And I said I didnāt know it, gosh, I didnāt know it. But McCartney really feels that Lennon sent me that song, he really does.
ā Carl Perkins, interviewed for Goldmine (September 26, 1986).
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Paul had gone to Yoko to ask if she had any of Johnās songs kicking around. The deal was that Paul would induct John into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in return. Yokoās a generous person in that respect, so she actually gave him three songs ā 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love' were worked up and released, the last one wasnāt.
ā Source close to the Anthology project, quoted in theĀ Sunday Express (April 29, 2007).
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It was one day ā one afternoon, really ā messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didnāt finish. It was sort of a bluesy sort of ballad, I suppose, in A minor. It was a very sweet song. I liked it a lot. Should it ever be completed it would probably end up as either āNow And Thenā or āMiss Youā. I wished we could have finished it.
ā Jeff Lynne, quoted in the Sunday Express (April 29, 2007).
It didnāt have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it. [But] George didnāt like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didnāt do it.
ā Paul McCartney, interviewed for Q Magazine (November 2006).
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There are a couple of things which may surface at some point. You see, with the Beatles, thereās always a surprise somewhere along the line. We did āFree As A Birdā and āReal Loveā, those two songs of Johnās, and that was very exciting, very moving for me and very comfortable having his voice in my headphones in the studio again. And there was a third track, another song we had our eyes on called āNow And Thenā. l actually wanted to do it on Anthology 3, but we didnāt all agree. But things change and the thing is that it might not go away. There was only one of us who didnāt want to do it. lt would have meant a lot of hard work, the song would have needed a lot of re-writing and people would have had to be very patient with us. But there are these one or two things lurking in the bushes. The Beatles might just raise their ugly little heads againā¦
ā Paul McCartney, quoted in the Sunday Express (April 29, 2007).
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And there was another one we started working on, but George went off it. We were like, āNo George, this is Johnā. He said, āItās still rubbishā. āOk, thenā. So that one is still lingering around. Iām gonna nick it with Jeff and do it. Finish it, one of these days.
ā Paul McCartney, interviewed for the āMr Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne & ELOā documentary (2012).
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Get Enough: It was a time when we walked by the docks / I told you, "I need you all of my life" / And watching the tugs rolling by together / Do you remember? / Do you remember the lights on the shore? / How they reflected the rain on the road? / I believed that you love me alone / It was real / Do you remember? / Now and then I see your face / I've been wanting a lovinā embrace / I've been looking for love, but it gets me nowhere / Oh, yeah, yeah
Get enough, get enough, get enough of (Your love) (x2) / I can't get enough of / Of you
It was a time we were all full of hope / Saw the future burning bright / As we watched the moon rollinā out to sea / Do you remember? / But those days are erased from my mind / Yeah, I've left all those old days behind / But still I remember your face forever, forever
.
If I'm going to see a face in a painting, it's highly likely to be his.
ā Paul McCartney, interviewed by Diane Sawyer for ABC News (November 2, 2000).
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And then 'Now and Thenā just kind of languished in a cupboard and we didnāt do anything with it. I kept saying, āYou know, maybe we should do something with this, seems a bitāā āHm, I donāt knowā¦ā There wasnāt a great desire to do anything with it. So it hung around for a while. Years! And every so often, Iād kind of go to the cupboard and think, āThereās a new song in there! We should do it! We gotta do it!ā But itād go back in the cupboard.
ā Paul McCartney, in BBC Sounds Eras: The Beatles (November 2, 2023).
I got a phone call from Paul saying, āIs it possible to use that [MAL] technology for another project Iāve been thinking about? [ā¦] Would it be possible to take Johnās vocal and clean it up and get rid of everything else? Because that would allow us to finish this Beatles song.ā And absolutely, it didnāt take me more than about a second to get back to him and say, āOf course we can do it!ā
ā Peter Jackson, in BBC Sounds Eras: The Beatles (November 2, 2023).
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Now and Then: I know itās true / Itās all because of you / And if I make it through / Itās all because of you
And now and then / If we must start again / Well we will know for sure / That I will love you
Now and then / I miss you / Oh now and then / I want you to be there for me / Always to return to me
I know itās true / Itās all because of you / And if you go away / I know youāll never stay
Now and then / I miss you / Oh now and then / I want you to be there for me
I know itās true / Itās all because of you / And if I make it through / Itās all because of you
.
I do feel as though āNow and Thenā is a love letter to Paul written by John. I mean, I've never really asked Paul about it, and I'm not sure whether Paul would say, āOh, that's definitely it,' because he wouldn't want to second guess John. But that's the sense I get. And I get the feeling that's why Paul was so determined to finish it.
ā Giles Martin, interviewed for PEOPLE magazine (October 26, 2023).
When you say you enjoy 'Now and Then', thatās really nice, because thatās why we do it. We do it so people can listen to stuff and not just hear it. 'Now and Then' sounds like a love song. It sounds like a song that John wrote for Paul, and the other Beatles: āI miss you/ Now and then.ā It sounds like Paul has gone there, which I think he did. You know, no one told Paul to go and do it, and Paul didnāt go,Ā This would be a great exercise for theĀ RedĀ andĀ Blue Album. He was at home in the studio. He dug on the record and started working on it, because itās his mate. And he really misses John. I mean, thatās the truth. They broke up, and John died nine years later. It really isnāt very long.
ā Giles Martin, interviewed for GRAMMYS (October 26, 2023).
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When I remember the Beatles, I remember the joy, the talent, the humor, the love. And I think, if people remembered us for that ā for those things ā Iād be very happy.
ā Paul McCartney, in BBC Sounds Eras: The Beatles (November 2, 2023).